The police-involved death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African American, amplified cries for racial justice and moved Father Michael Joncas to take action.

As protests and riots spread around the world, with the Twin Cities the epicenter, Father Joncas believed it would be good for Catholics to respond with prayer. He discussed the idea with Father Tom Margevicius, director of the Office of Worship at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “We already have set aside Jan. 22 as a day of prayer and fasting against the sin of abortion,” Father Margevicius said, so he told Father Joncas that his idea to do the same for the sin of racism made sense.

A photo of a stained-glass window from the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul graces the cover of the booklet being used for the Dec. 2 prayer service. The window depicts St. Peter Claver, a Spanish Jesuit priest who ministered to thousands of African slaves in Columbia in the 1600s. COURTESY CATHEDRAL OF ST. PAUL

Father Joncas described his proposal in a letter to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who responded favorably. Father Joncas and Father Margevicius developed the idea over time with Adam Fitzpatrick, social mission outreach coordinator at the archdiocese’s Center for Mission, and Father Erich Rutten, pastor of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul. The result is a day of prayer and fasting in the archdiocese against the sin of racism set for Dec. 2.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens will preside at 7:30 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. He will pray from the Roman Missal, “Mass for the Preservation of Peace and Justice.”

Archbishop Hebda will later lead a 7 p.m. prayer service at the Cathedral. Participants can attend in person, following COVID-19 precautions, or via the cathedral’s Facebook page.

There will be Scripture readings and people will be invited to pray for forgiveness for seven categories of sin, including personal racial prejudice, racial prejudice within the Church, and actions against love, peace, the rights of peoples, and respect for cultures and religions.

Pope St. John Paul II’s prayer at the time of the millennium, sometimes called a litany of forgiveness on behalf of the Church for its sins, inspired the categories of prayer, said Father Joncas, an artist in residence at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and research fellow there in Catholic Studies. “He did a wonderful litany of things that the Catholic Church was repenting of,” he said.

Father Joncas said he hopes that people experiencing the prayer will think about the racial divisions in the U.S. and in the world, and commit as good Catholics to trying to overcome that sin. “It’s not a substitute for social action or activity, but it’s certainly a good grounding for it,” he said.

All Catholics in the archdiocese are invited to participate. Invitations are being sent to priests and parishes. Catholic schools in the archdiocese are encouraged to have students observe it at school in some way, and institutions can determine the best way to recognize the day in their own settings, Father Margevicius said.

“If there’s enough groundswell (among individuals and parishes) … then it may well develop into a blossoming of multiple efforts,” he said.